We conclude that the Short-Term Life Review is effective in improving the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients, and alleviating psychosocial distress and promoting a good death.

To establish a detailed reaction mechanism for the condensation between a boronic acid, RB(OH)2, and a diol, H2L, in aqueous solution, the acid dissociation constants (Ka(BL)) of boronic acid diol esters (HBLs) were determined based on the well-established concept of conditional formation constants of metal complexes. The pKa values of HBLs were 2.30, 2.77, and 2.00 for the reaction systems, 2,4-difluorophenylboronic acid and chromotropic acid, 3-nitrophenylboronic acid and alizarin red S, and phenylboronic acid and alizarin red S, respectively. A general and precise reaction mechanism of RB(OH)2 with H2L in aqueous solution, which can serve as a universal reaction mechanism for RB(OH)2 and H2L, was proposed on the basis of (a) the relative kinetic reactivities of the RB(OH)2 and its conjugate base, that is, the boronate ion, toward H2L, and (b) the determined pKa values of HBLs. The use of the conditional formation constant, K', based on the main reaction: RB(OH)2 + H2L (K1)⇌ RB(L)(OH)(-) + H3O(+) instead of the binding constant has been proposed for the general reaction of uncomplexed boronic acid species (B') with uncomplexed diol species (L') to form boronic acid diol complex species (esters, BL') in aqueous solution at pH 5-11: B' + L' (K')⇌ BL'. The proposed reaction mechanism explains perfectly the formation of boronic acid diol ester in aqueous solution.

The Short-Term Life Review is feasible and may be effective in improving the spiritual and psychosocial well-being of terminally ill cancer patients.

Internal structures of translucent poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel were for the first time observed by laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). The observed image reflected the mesoscopic internal structures in the gel due to the “fixed concentration fluctuations” of network polymers as described in the text. Three-dimensional internal structures in the gel constructed from a series of the cross section images taken by the LSCM revealed that the gel had a bicontinuous domain structure consisting of regions dense and sparse in polymer networks.

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